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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

News and Notes: Wednesday Edition

Below, some news and notes for Wednesday...

With Ivy League 2010-2011 regular season finally complete, Cornell finishes the year 10-18 overall (6-8 Ivy League, 5th place), following up on the Big Red's three consecutive Ivy League titles between 2008 through 2010 and the Sweet 16 appearance and No. 17 final national ranking from a year ago.

The Tiger Blog of Princeton appreciates the lack of a conference tournament in the Ivy League and points out, "TB said the same thing each of the last three years, when it was Cornell that won the regular-season title."

Above, incoming Cornell recruit, Galal Cancer (Christian Brothers Academy) Albany, NY, 6-3, G, poses with the championship trophy from the New York State Section 2 Class AA boys basketball finals which CBA won, 69-46 over Bishop Maginn at the Times Union Center in Albany last night. Below, Galal speaks with his younger brother Shalal Cancer during the closing minutes. Recaps may be found in the Albany Times Union, the Saratogan, and the Troy Record. The Times Union writes, "Cancer, the point guard with a mind good enough for Cornell and a game just as smart... led all scorers with 20 en route to being named tournament MVP." The Troy Record writes, "The foul shooting of Galal Cancer, as it had been in the semifinals against Albany High, was crucial for the Brothers success. Cancer hit his first 11 foul shots of the night on Tuesday, never even touching the rim." The Times Union also notes that Cancer was also named this week as the Big 10 Conference's Player of the Year.

Cornell RPI Watch: The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule and how a team does against that schedule. It does not consider the margin of victory, but only whether or not a team won and where the game was played (home/away/neutral court). The formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). (See: CollegeRPI.com for a further explanation of the formula.) The RPI may be the most influential factor in NCAA Tournament seeding. Cornell's RPI rank as of March 9 is No. 207 out of 347 total Division I teams. While neither the Ken Pomeroy or Jeff Sagarin rankings are used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the KenPom.com site ranks Cornell No. 189 in the nation, while the USA Today Sagarin rankings have Cornell at No. 205. Both sites are predominantly used by fans and the media.

Game Recaps-Below are links to our game recaps from each of Cornell's games this season. Associated press recaps courtesy of Rivals.com/YahooSports.com are always available by clicking on Cornell's schedule/results on the right column of this blog.